The People's Republic of Fub

Code:Realize: In a steampunk Victorian England, a master thief, a genius engineer and a doctor live together in a hidden mansion. One day, they steal the daughter of a lord, who has some kind of energy source embedded in her. She is poisonous to the touch, and she has been retrieved by the army, who are operating on the orders of a hidden organisation with nefarious plans. They convince her that she is better off with them, instead of languishing away in her father’s deserted mansion.
I like steampunk as much as the next guy, but this just felt bland. There’s not much that catches the attention, and it’s “lazy steampunk”: there are cars, but they run on steam! Yes, but I would want to see how things are different once you use steam instead of internal combustion… And the three male leads are of course flawless and super capable, while the female lead doesn’t know anything and needs constant reassurance from them.
Verdict: Meh, we’ll pass.

Dyanmic Chord: The singer of one popular all-male band (and this time it’s an actual band: they play instruments) drives around in the spring rain with his roof open. He is absent from the rehearsals, even though they will go on a world tour soon. The vocalist of a more junior band (presumably from the same management) is asked to fill in during the rehearsals.
At the end of the episode, I didn’t know who all these pretty boys with improbable hair were supposed to be. Nor did I understand why I was supposed to care about what happened to them. The animation is laughably bad: lots of pans across stills or minimal animation, many repeated shots, long shots of the boys’ concerned faces without any dialogue… It’s thoroughly bad.
Verdict: Hell no!

Blend S: Maika wants a part-time job to save up for studying abroad, but since her face is so menacing, she gets rejected every time — even though her personality tends towards the polite end of the scale. One day she is ‘discovered’ by the perverted owner of a cafe where every waitress plays a certain personality type. Maika’s appearance is perfect to fill the role of the sadistic member of staff, and that is indeed a handy excuse to explain her horrible service. The clients (and the owner) are hooked! And of course, we also meet some of the other staff, whose roles in the cafe don’t fit with their personalities either.
It’s not bad as such, but I’ve never subscribed to the idea that every series needs at least one character with one of the set of prototypical personalities. Watching a tsundere character was interesting the first time around. But the fifth… not so much — it just lacks any kind of nuance. So imagine each of those personality types being played out in the setting of a cafe with cute maid outfits. I just can’t care.
Verdict: Thoroughly ‘meh’.